Sandwich making machines

ABSTRACT

Successive pieces of baked dough are moved along a main static conveyor surface by fingers projecting upward through a longitudinal slot in the surface. The fingers are connected to and moved by an endless chain. They consist of two types alternately positioned along the chain. One type is used for the coated pieces and has a long upwardly projecting finger. The other type is used for the uncoated pieces and is characterized by a relatively short finger and a horizontal projection sufficient to support the piece. After the alternate pieces are coated, they are moved to a station at which there is a short static conveyor surface above the main surface. Here the chain and main surface approach each other so that the fingers are raised with respect to the main surface. The coated pieces remain on the main surface and pass below the upper surface, but the uncoated pieces are raised to the level of the upper surface. Here they are inverted onto the upper surface by a swinging hook inverter. The fingers of the coated pieces project through a longitudinal slot in the upper surface so as to advance the inverted uncoated pieces coincidentally with the advancement of a coated piece on the main surface; whereupon, when the uncoated piece reaches the end of the upper conveyor, it drops onto the coated piece.

United States Patent m1 Staples 1H1 3,762,306 Oct. 2, 1973 SANDWICHMAKING MACHINES John Arthur Staples, Peterborough Pe28, England [73]Assignee: United Biscuits, Limited, Isleworth,

Middlesex, England {22] Filed: July 26, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 165,970

{75'} Inventor:

Primary Examiner.lohn Petrakes Assistant ExaminerAlan I. CantorAttorney-Howard H. Darbo et al.

57 ABSTRACT Successive pieces of baked dough are moved along a mainstatic conveyor surface by fingers projecting upward through alongitudinal slot in the surface. The fingers are connected to and movedby an endless chain. They consist of two types alternately positionedalong the chain. One type is used for the coated pieces and has a longupwardly projecting finger. The other type is used for the uncoatedpieces and is characterized by a relatively short linger and ahorizontal projection sufficient to support the piece. After thealternate pieces are coated, they are moved to a station at which thereis a short static conveyor surface above the main surface. Here thechain and main surface approach each other so that the fingers areraised with respect to the main surface. The coated pieces remain on themain surface and pass below the upper surface, but the uncoated piecesare raised to the level of the upper surface. Here they are invertedonto the upper surface by a swinging hook inverter. The fingers of thecoated pieces project through a longitudinal slot in the upper surfaceso as to advance the inverted uncoated pieces coincidentally with theadvancement of a coated piece on the main surface; whereupon, when theuncoated piece reaches the end of the upper conveyor, it drops onto thecoated piece.

4 Claims, 11 Drawing Figures PATENTED BET 21 75 SHEET 10F s FI G.1

PATENTED UB1 2 SHEET 2 BF 5 FIG. 10

1 I J r I 1 SANDWICH MAKING MACHINES BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Inorder to form sandwich biscuits from a spaced succession of likeindividual biscuits passing along a conveyor from a common supply all inthe same aspect, filling is applied to alternate biscuits only.

The intervening biscuits are turned over while still in contact withpushers which have already been moving them along a stationary track andare deposited on an upper track from which they are each in turn pushedin vertical alignment with the succeeding filled biscuit to drop thereonto form the sandwich.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to sandwich-makingmachines for making sandwiches from baked dough pieces.

The object of the present Application is to make such machines moresuitable for handling fragile pieces and consists essentially in using aconveyor pusher as the fulcrum for turning such pieces over about theirtrailing edges in their direction of movement.

DESIGNATION OF THE FIGURES FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic side elevation of asandwich biscuit making machine embodying the invention,

FIGS. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 are fragmentary elevational views in diagrammaticform showing successive operational positions of the machine of FIG. 1in side elevation,

FIG. 7 shows the equipment utilizedin FIGS. 4 6 enlarged and in greaterdetail, FIG. 8 is a vertical section taken at line 8-8 of FIG. 7,showing two operational channels side by side,

FIG. 9 is a plan view of FIG. 8,and

FIG. 10 and 11 are vertical sections taken at lines l-- 10 and 11-11respectively of FIG. 7.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Individual biscuits aremoved alonga fixed sheet metal conveyor surface 1, FIG. 1, by spaced upstandingpusher fingers 2,3 carried by an endless conveyor chain 4 upwards withinan axial longitudinal slot in the base of the surface 1. I i

The machine will usually have a plurality of parallel conveyors andancillary equipment.

Successive pusher fingers 2, 3 rising from the lower run of the endlessconveyor chain 4 push successive biscuits from the bottom of a singlebiscuit stack in a magazine 6 to which are supplied biscuits stackedwith their eventual outer surface facing downwards. This is illustratedin FIG. 2.

Filling is deposited on alternate biscuits conveyed by pusher fingers 3by conventional coating equipment indicated at 7. Thereafter theintervening uncoated biscuits carried'by pusher fingers 2 are turnedover backwards about their trailing edges.

In application, Ser. No. 162,062, of a prior inventor the fulcrum forthe trailing edge was the leading edge of the succeeding coated biscuit.

In the present arrangement the shoulder of the pusher finger 2 withwhich an uncoated biscuit is in contact acts as the fulcrum for turningthe biscuit over.

As before there is a lateral lifting'flange 8 at the lower end of aswing or crook 9. Member 9 is mounted on and is freely pivotal about ahorizontal spindle in a stationary support. The lifting flange 8receives the leading edge of the biscuit and swings upwards due to thebiscuit movement, pulling the moving biscuit edge upwards and to therear until the biscuit passes the vertical and drops'backwards; seeFIGS. 4, 5, and 6. Prior to the time that this turning took place, thepushers 2 raised the uncoated biscuits to a level above the conveyorsurface 1 and about at the elevation of a conveyor surface 11.

In position to receive the falling biscuit is the upper horizontalconveyor surface ll, above the conveyor surface 1 along which the coatedbiscuits pass. The uncoated reversed biscuit is now behind its pusherfinger 2 (as seen in FIG. 6) and is picked up by the succeeding pusherfinger 3, already pushing the succeeding coated biscuit, so that bothbiscuits are then pushed along one above the other. When the end of theupper conveyor surface 11 is reached, the uncoated biscuit drops ontothe coated lower biscuit to form the sandwich as indicated in FIG. 6.

The sequence of operations described above can be controlled in variousways, and the preferred manner illustrated in the accompanying drawingswill now be described in detail.

FIG. 2 shows the biscuits with their flat eventually inner surfacesuppermost in the stack in magazine 6. The biscuits are taken from thebottom of the stack one by one by the successive pusher fingers 2, 3, 2,3 etc.

It will be seen that two forms of pusher finger occur in sequence.

The pusher fingers 2 have a supporting surface normally aligned with theconveyor surface 1 and a pusher shoulder sufficiently high to push asingle biscuit. The pusher fingers 3 normally extend above and below theconveyor surface 1 and have a shoulder high enough to push two stackedbiscuits when free to do so, as will be seen later. Pusher fingers 2 arelarge enough in the horizontal directions to support and carry biscuitsindependently of conveyor surface 1 when the biscuit is raised abovethat surface as described below.

FIG. 3 shows the biscuit passing under the known coating equipment 7comprising a hollow cylinder 12 formed with four equispaced radialcylindrical apertures therein containing pistons 13 controlled from acentral shaft by eccentrics arranged to withdraw each piston as itpasses under a filling reservoir 14 so that the piston sucks a pat offilling into its aperture.

The gradual outward stroke of each piston forces out a pat of filling.When the piston is over the biscuit as shown in FIG. 3 the pat offilling is deposited byscraper 15 onto the biscuit. The piston spacingsequal the spacings of alternate biscuits.

Beyond the coating equipment 7 is the biscuit turning device 8 10. Itwill be seen fromFIGS. 1 and 4 that the conveyor surface 1 graduallydips as it approaches the turning device 8 10, while the upper conveyorsurface 11 is horizontally in line with the previous part of the surface1.

Thus the pusher fingers 2, which follow a horizontal course and areadapted to support a biscuit, carry the uncoated biscuits from thesupporting surface 1 to the supporting surface '11 above the level ofsurface 1 along which the coated biscuits are still being pushed-by theshoulders of the pusher-fingers 3. The fingers 3 have a height which issufficient to span both surfaces 1, 11.

In the path of the pusher flngers'2 is the lateral lifting flange 8 ofthe L shaped swing or crook 9. The front edge of each uncoated biscuitrides in turn onto the support flange 8 as the crook 9 swings down aboutits spindle after the previous biscuit fell over backwards.

Comparing FIGS. 5 and 6 it will be seen that as the biscuit passes thevertical just after the position shown in FIG. 5, the pusher finger 2continues to draw the trailing edge forward until what was the leadingedge is well over the conveyor surface 11 whereupon the pusher finger 2disengages from what was the trailing edge. The uncoated biscuit is leftlying on channel 11 ready to be picked up and pushed along by the top ofthe long succeeding pusher finger 3 which now completely protrudes abovethe conveyor surface 1 and also extends above upper surface 11 due tothe dip of the conveyor surface I.

As shown in FIG. 5, the succeeding pusher finger 3 pushes the twobiscuits along, one above the other, until the upper uncoated biscuitreaches the end of surface 11 whereupon said biscuit drops cleanly ontothe coated biscuit below. The accurate closure of the sandwich isassisted by a stationary top guide 16 which holds the upper biscuit frominclining downwards until it is about completely off the end of thesurface 11 (FIG. 6);

The completed sandwich now passes under a pressure member 17 (FIG. 7)which presses the upper biscuit onto the filling and determines that thesandwich has the correct thickness.

It will be seen that the pusher fingers must simultaneously extendthrough slots in both surfaces 1, l l. The cross-sectional design of theequipment for this purpose is shown in FIGS. 8 11 which arecross-sections of the enlarged and detailed side elevation of thesandwich-forming part of the machine shown in FIG. 7.

The surfaces 1 comprise spaced longitudinal runners 21 of sheet metaleach carrying a longitudinal wall 22, adjacent pairs of which define away, including surface I, having sides guiding the biscuits such as 23,FIG. 8. The biscuits are normally carried by the runners 21, but in FIG.8 they are carried by the pusher fingers 2 since the runners 21 ofconveyor surface 1 have moved downwards at point 8 8. The pusher fingers2 and 3 for a number of parallel ways are carried by cross beams 18secured to the conveyor chain 4.

The swinging crooks 9 are carried vertically offcenter by right-anglesupports 24 journalled on shaft 10. The supports 24 are slotted as shownin FIGS. 8 and 9, and are located by pins extending horizontally from arotatable frame member 19.

The bottom of crooks 9 are bifurcated to straddle the tops of the pusherfingers 2, 3.

FIG. 10 shows the two superposed conveyor surfaces 1, 11 carrying coatedand uncoated biscuits respec tively, between common side walls 27depending from a gantry 28.

FIG. 11 shows a completed sandwich being compressed between the base ofconveyor surface 1 and the pressure member 17 while travelling undercontrol of pusher finger 3.

I claim:

I. In a biscuit sandwich making machine for making sandwiches from aplurality of biscuit pieces, which machine comprises a first generallyhorizontal static conveyor surface with a longitudinal slot therein, anendless conveyor having a run thereof below said surface, said conveyorhaving spaced pusher fingers upstanding through said longitudinal slot,said endless conveyor moving said fingers in a path in a given directionwith respect to said static surface, means at a first position alongsaid path to deliver biscuit pieces to said path so that said fingerspush biscuit pieces along said static conveyor surface, fillingdepositing means at a second position along said path in said directionfrom said first position for coating biscuit pieces which are in frontof alternate pusher fingers, and an inverter device positioned at athird position along said path in said direction from the secondposition for inverting the alternate uncoated biscuit pieces onto thecoated pieces, said inverter device comprising a finger pivotallymounted above said conveyor surface, extending downwardly from saidmounting, and having a lip at its lower end, which lip extends in theopposite of said direction, the improvement comprising:

at said third position there being a second static conveyor surfaceabove and approximately parallel to said first conveyor surface, saidsecond surface having a slot therein parallel to the slot in the firstconveyor surface, the difference in elevation between said surfacesforming a space only slightly greater than the height of a coatedbiscuit piece, said second surface having an entering end and adischarge end in said direction from said entering end,

said lip of said inverter device being at about the ele vation of thesecond static conveyor surface,

said endless conveyor means sequentially moving the coated biscuitpieces through said space between the two static conveyor surfaces andmoving the uncoated biscuit pieces to the entering end of the secondstatic conveyor surface at about the level thereof so that at said thirdposition said inverting device deposits said uncoated biscuit pieces ininverted position onto said second surface, said pusher fingers pushingone of said coated pieces being sufficiently long to extend through theslot in said second surface to engage and to push the inverted uncoatedpiece ahead of it whereby as the uncoated piece reaches said dischargeend it descends onto the coated piece being pushed by the same finger.

2. A machine as set forth in claim 1, wherein the pusher fingersnormally pushing the uncoated pieces have carrier means forming a partthereof to support and carry said uncoated pieces, said run of saidconveyor means and said first surface approaching each other at alocation adjacent said entering end of said second surface whereby thefingers are raised with respect to said first surface and the carriermeans lifts the uncoated pieces above said first surface.

3. A machine as set forth in claim 2, wherein said second surface isrelatively short in length and said entering end is about at said thirdposition.

4. A machine as set forth in claim 1 including a static guide memberabove said second surface at said discharge end a distance justsufficient to permit the uncoated piece to move between the secondsurface and the guide member whereby the uncoated piece is heldsubstantially parallel to said second surface until it about completelyleaves said second surface.

* l il

1. In a biscuit sandwich making machine for making sandwiches from aplurality of biscuit pieces, which machine comprises a first generallyhorizontal static conveyor surface with a longitudinal slot therein, anendless conveyor having a run thereof below said surface, said conveyorhaving spaced pusher fingers upstanding through said longitudinal slot,said endless conveyor moving said fingers in a path in a given directionwith respect to said static surface, means at a first position alongsaid path to deliver biscuit pieces to said path so that said fingerspush biscuit pieces along said static conveyor surface, fillingdepositing means at a second position along said path in said Directionfrom said first position for coating biscuit pieces which are in frontof alternate pusher fingers, and an inverter device positioned at athird position along said path in said direction from the secondposition for inverting the alternate uncoated biscuit pieces onto thecoated pieces, said inverter device comprising a finger pivotallymounted above said conveyor surface, extending downwardly from saidmounting, and having a lip at its lower end, which lip extends in theopposite of said direction, the improvement comprising: at said thirdposition there being a second static conveyor surface above andapproximately parallel to said first conveyor surface, said secondsurface having a slot therein parallel to the slot in the first conveyorsurface, the difference in elevation between said surfaces forming aspace only slightly greater than the height of a coated biscuit piece,said second surface having an entering end and a discharge end in saiddirection from said entering end, said lip of said inverter device beingat about the elevation of the second static conveyor surface, saidendless conveyor means sequentially moving the coated biscuit piecesthrough said space between the two static conveyor surfaces and movingthe uncoated biscuit pieces to the entering end of the second staticconveyor surface at about the level thereof so that at said thirdposition said inverting device deposits said uncoated biscuit pieces ininverted position onto said second surface, said pusher fingers pushingone of said coated pieces being sufficiently long to extend through theslot in said second surface to engage and to push the inverted uncoatedpiece ahead of it whereby as the uncoated piece reaches said dischargeend it descends onto the coated piece being pushed by the same finger.2. A machine as set forth in claim 1, wherein the pusher fingersnormally pushing the uncoated pieces have carrier means forming a partthereof to support and carry said uncoated pieces, said run of saidconveyor means and said first surface approaching each other at alocation adjacent said entering end of said second surface whereby thefingers are raised with respect to said first surface and the carriermeans lifts the uncoated pieces above said first surface.
 3. A machineas set forth in claim 2, wherein said second surface is relatively shortin length and said entering end is about at said third position.
 4. Amachine as set forth in claim 1 including a static guide member abovesaid second surface at said discharge end a distance just sufficient topermit the uncoated piece to move between the second surface and theguide member whereby the uncoated piece is held substantially parallelto said second surface until it about completely leaves said secondsurface.